At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• 5GB free account
• Browser interface and native apps
• Syncs throughout units
• Vault for non-distributed backup
• User definable expiration dates for file and folder shares

Cons

• No scheduled backups for Vault

Our Verdict

Sync.com is safe, gives synced storage for distribution throughout units, and unsynced storage for pure backup. It’s additionally reasonably priced for finish customers and enterprise alike.

Price When Reviewed

Plans vary from Free (5GB) to $20 monthly (6TB)

Best Prices Today: Sync.com

Where on-line storage companies resembling Dropbox, iCloud, and others solely mean you can sync knowledge throughout units, Sync.com provides discrete unsynced storage to the combination by way of its Vault folder. This makes it significantly well-suited for backup. We just like the method, and we predict the corporate ought to take it even additional.

Note: See our roundup of the best cloud backup services to study competing merchandise, what to search for in on-line backup, and product suggestions.

Sync.com sports activities an internet interface that you should use to tug and drop information to and out of your desktop, in addition to apps that present sync performance for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. There’s a free 5GB account out there (to not be mistaken for the free trial of the paid tier—see the screenshot under). End-users can improve that storage to 200GB for $5 a month, 2TB for $8 a month, and 6TB for $20 a month.

Jon Jacobi / Foundry

The free and $5 improve lack some options discovered within the $8 account: resembling doc previews for viewing information on-line—you’ll need to obtain; the power to selectively select what information in your Sync folder you simply need saved regionally or cloud-only (a characteristic that’s presently in beta); and the power to grant a non-user permission to add information to your Sync folder and Vault.

The $20 Solo Professional tier goes even additional with superior options for branding (utilizing your individual emblem, and so on.) and precedence help.

There are additionally business-oriented Team accounts for a number of customers. Entry-level for this kind of account is $6 a month per consumer (a minimal of two customers) with 1TB of storage per consumer, whereas for $15 month-to-month per consumer you get limitless storage, branding, and telephone help.

In my opinion, the extra 800GB of storage and further options resembling add hyperlinks (you ship a hyperlink to a location for a buyer to add a file) make the $6 crew plan a greater deal than the $5 single-user plan. Assuming in fact, you’ll find a companion in crime.

Sync.com’s net interface is mostly engaging and simple, however I used to be a little bit confused once I clicked on Help and was instantly offered with a contact type. There’s a small hyperlink on the high of the shape to the Sync data base, however just like the provide for the free 5GB plan, it’s relatively unobtrusive and simple to overlook.

Giving the data base its personal menu merchandise could be useful since that’s the place most customers are inclined to look. Also, because the desktop app creates a Sync folder, it is perhaps good if the corresponding vacation spot on the web site was known as that relatively than the considerably cryptic “Files.”

The Sync folder

Said Files folder behaves identical to every other sync service’s. Any information saved there shall be subsequently distributed to any units working the Sync.com app. Drag-and-drop is absolutely supported by the online browser interface, which is what I used for my first couple of checks.

I then switched to the native Sync folder put in by the Sync app because it helps the beforehand described Sync CloudFiles on-demand perform, which lets you resolve which information are native and that are cloud-only.

Similar to a characteristic in OneDrive, Sync CloudFiles permits you to set information to on-demand, or “cloud-only,” in order that they don’t sync with different units robotically. They’re solely copied to the cloud the place you might then manually obtain them onto different units as wanted. It is usually a solution to save house on units. The possibility for that is discovered within the right-click context menu, in your pc; it didn’t seem as an possibility once I examined Sync from the online portal. Remember, the characteristic remains to be in beta. Note that information you delete from the Sync folder are retained till you particularly empty the trash.

The Vault

If you wish to again up information with out transferring them to the native Sync folder, you employ the “Copy to Vault” possibility that the Sync program integrates into the context menus of your working system. Files within the Vault stay unchanged till you delete them utilizing the online interface, or they’re changed by newer variations—subsequent copies are in contrast with new or up to date information copied into the vault. Files within the Vault are accessible from the Wweb interface and any of the apps.

My solely difficulty with the Vault is that, presently, information should be copied manually. I’m not a kind of individuals who at all times remembers to again up. Data within the Vault is saved on-line utilizing the identical listing construction that the info is copied from (E.g, c:usersusernamedocumentscopied listing or information). As this system clearly is aware of the place the information are, there’s no motive that the Sync app couldn’t robotically carry out backups. If not in actual time or following modifications, then at the very least on a continuing schedule. I’ve lobbied Sync.com so as to add this characteristic.

Not everybody needs to sync knowledge throughout all their units, particularly these working with massive knowledge units resembling my 700GB of recordings, which most positively won’t match on my telephone. (Note that cloud-only information will seem within the apps and native folder, they simply received’t take up any house.)

Performance

Sync.com’s efficiency will clearly differ by the interface you employ and, extra importantly, the bandwidth of your web connection. My preliminary transfers utilizing an internet browser and drag-and-drop had been fairly fast and naturally began instantly.

Syncing 3.5GB of photographs with the Sync.com folder was full inside a few hours. Copies to the Vault commenced in good order, and my preliminary add was out there on-line inside an hour. Note that my upstream bandwidth is roughly 500MBps.

I did have one minor difficulty whereas booting macOS: Sync.com would throw a message about being disabled. Choosing the Re-enable possibility from the dialog mounted the difficulty quickly and offering Sync.com full disk entry in Security eradicated the difficulty.

Should you employ Sync.com?

Sync.com is as straightforward and safe as any service we’ve tried, and the dual-role sync/easy storage performance makes it straightforward to again up in addition to preserve pertinent knowledge on all of your units. It could be simpler with scheduling and some language tweaks, however kudos at any fee. To reiterate, we think about the $6 monthly Team plan the candy spot for Sync.com should you can seize one other member of the family or pal to crew up with.